These magical little creatures are also variously known about the world as duendes, lutins, pukwudgies, fairies, leprechauns, goblins, or gnomes. Not very much is known about them but I do know they smoke tobacco.

Look, for me, whether fairies, elves, aliens, dragons, demons, etc... exist or not is not really the point. What is of importance is what impact does this have on your practice? Does it impact positively on your practice? Does it make you wiser and more compassionate? Then go right ahead and believe in it. Does it impact negatively on your practice? Does it increase the five poisons? Then drop it. Does it have no effect on your practice whatsoever? Then just ignore it!

My dear V... you are in a Buddhist forum posting in the General Dharma section and I gave you a general Buddhist answer regarding the content of the media you posted. How exactly do you expect people to respond?

I. Generally speaking, yakṣas are a class of beings who assail and cause harm to humans. Because they are troublesome, they are taken as a whole as one of the sde brgyad eight classes of spirits. They are "officially" regarded as a class of lha gods living in the lowest level of the desire realm; two of the rgyal chen rigs bzhi Four Great Kings are yakṣas and there are many yakṣas in the retinues of the Four Great Kings. Besides them in particular, there are many other types of non-human beings that can be harmful and who are given this name. Especially, there are many kinds of powerful spirits from the yi dvags preta realm who either can manifest in the human realm or live in close connection with the human realm, who are intent on harming humans, and who are given this name. For example, all of the different malignant spirits mentioned in European culture — demons, goblins, trolls, nasty ghosts, etcetera—would be called yakṣas in the Indian cultural context. Note that there are many non-harmful spirits of European culture which would not be included in this grouping, e.g., many elves and good fairies. There are many types of yakṣa just as there are many types of harmful spirits in the European tradition. A commonly mentioned sub-group of yakṣas in Indian culture are the flesh-eating type who are called rakṣa or "rakṣasa".

Thoroughly tame your own mind.This is (possibly) the teaching of Buddha.

You know, the more you concern yourself with these beings the greater the chance that you will come across them. In the zen tradition there is a koan that goes something like: I thought I knew a Persian with a red beard, now I know a Persian with a red beard.

Since you seem to be obsessed with them and since they are malevolent if you want you can PM me with your email and I can send you a jpeg with an amulet that guards against them that you then have to copy by hand.

I. Generally speaking, yakṣas are a class of beings who assail and cause harm to humans. ...For example, all of the different malignant spirits mentioned in European culture — demons, goblins, trolls, nasty ghosts, etcetera—would be called yakṣas in the Indian cultural context. Note that there are many non-harmful spirits of European culture which would not be included in this grouping, e.g., many elves and good fairies..

Really? I had thought yakshas while tending to maliciousness were sort of mixed. In many sutras yaksha kings and their retinue (or armies) come to hear Shakyamuni on Vulture Peak. Also Ven. Pundhammo in Canada many years ago on Usenet told me about a yaksha in the Pali canon that had attained the level of Stream Enterer but he still caused some people trouble in some cases (one person he drove insane for example). This was in the context of a larger discussion on Stream Enterers gone somewhat bad btw but were still Stream Enterers*.

Kirt

* another example was a human Stream Enterer in the Pali cannon who nonetheless became an alcoholic.

gregkavarnos wrote:You know, the more you concern yourself with these beings the greater the chance that you will come across them. In the zen tradition there is a koan that goes something like: I thought I knew a Persian with a red beard, now I know a Persian with a red beard.

Since you seem to be obsessed with them and since they are malevolent if you want you can PM me with your email and I can send you a jpeg with an amulet that guards against them that you then have to copy by hand.

the only obsession around here seems to be yours with telling people what they should or shouldn't be interested in.

Thoroughly tame your own mind.This is (possibly) the teaching of Buddha.

gregkavarnos wrote:You know, the more you concern yourself with these beings the greater the chance that you will come across them. In the zen tradition there is a koan that goes something like: I thought I knew a Persian with a red beard, now I know a Persian with a red beard.

Since you seem to be obsessed with them and since they are malevolent if you want you can PM me with your email and I can send you a jpeg with an amulet that guards against them that you then have to copy by hand.

the only obsession around here seems to be yours with telling people what they should or shouldn't be interested in.

I didn't tell anyone what they should or should not be interested in. I offered to send V. a protective amulet, so maybe you should just chill and leave the ad homs at home my friend!

m. N. of a class of semi-divine beings (attendants of कुबेर , exceptionally also of विष्णु ; described as sons of पुलस्त्य , of पुलह , of कश्यप , of खसा or क्रोधा ; also as produced from the feet of ब्रह्मा ; though generally regarded as beings of a benevolent and inoffensive disposition , like the यक्ष in कालिदास's मेघ-दूत , they are occasionally classed with पिशाचs and other malignant spirits , and sometimes said to cause demoniacal possession ; as to their position in the Buddhist system » MWB. 206 , 218) Up. Gr2S. Mn. MBh. &c

It's saying "though generally regarded as beings of a benevolent and inoffensive disposition, like the yaksa in Kalidasa's 'Meghaduta', they are occasionally classed with pishachas and other malignant spirits"

gregkavarnos wrote:You know, the more you concern yourself with these beings the greater the chance that you will come across them. In the zen tradition there is a koan that goes something like: I thought I knew a Persian with a red beard, now I know a Persian with a red beard.

Since you seem to be obsessed with them and since they are malevolent if you want you can PM me with your email and I can send you a jpeg with an amulet that guards against them that you then have to copy by hand.

the only obsession around here seems to be yours with telling people what they should or shouldn't be interested in.

I didn't tell anyone what they should or should not be interested in. I offered to send V. a protective amulet, so maybe you should just chill and leave the ad homs at home my friend!

blah blah blah

Thoroughly tame your own mind.This is (possibly) the teaching of Buddha.

gregkavarnos wrote:You know, the more you concern yourself with these beings the greater the chance that you will come across them. In the zen tradition there is a koan that goes something like: I thought I knew a Persian with a red beard, now I know a Persian with a red beard.

Since you seem to be obsessed with them and since they are malevolent if you want you can PM me with your email and I can send you a jpeg with an amulet that guards against them that you then have to copy by hand.

I am obsessed with them you say? What is wrong with you, Greg? Perhaps you need to take a pause from using the computer. And over here, sadly, where you address with reptilian coldness another newcomer, Grand Poo Bah, after his very first post, after he is opening up and sharing about his emotional and psychological difficulties: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=6331

Nonetheless, Greg, thank you for your strange offer of an amulet photograph. Feel free to send this to my PMs. Unfortunately if I am to try to keep the yakkhas at bay I will be already more than twenty three years too late. I've heard the song and I have seen the hat and the symbols made of bones on the hat. My hair has been braided. We went away together while I was down. Indeed, as a young teenager my good friend and I were brought to the ground by a magical little creature, which we encountered while walking by the river one night along the pathway.

Yakkhas can do great harm to one, no doubt, but I believe they can also help a person. They can show to a young man his previous lives, in the higher realms, and in the lower realms. Without wisdom it may be impossible to know with any certainty if there has been help or harm. They are very dangerous, and very powerful. As it is said, yakkhas are beings of varying degrees of ethical purity.

There are several good sources of information submitted. Thank you all for these. I am particularly wondering if there are esoteric writings in the Tibetan tradition that basically divulge the secret business of the yakkas, their motivations, talk of their history, specific misadventures, or anything which gives an accurate description of their appearance, especially on the subject of the meaning behind these odd symbols in those thin little bones. Thank you.

Vipassualty wrote: I am particularly wondering if there are esoteric writings in the Tibetan tradition that basically divulge the secret business of the yakkas, their motivations, talk of their history, specific misadventures, or anything which gives an accurate description of their appearance, especially on the subject of the meaning behind these odd symbols in those thin little bones. Thank you.

If you are a Dzogchen practitioner, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche has a couple of books (which are restricted to practitioners) that talk in greater depth about the eight classes of beings.

Also, google eight classes of beings for some cursory material.

How foolish you are, grasping the letter of the text and ignoring its intention! - Vasubandhu

Mr. G wrote:If you are a Dzogchen practitioner, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche has a couple of books (which are restricted to practitioners) that talk in greater depth about the eight classes of beings.

Also, google eight classes of beings for some cursory material.

I am Theravadin practitioner and student of the Dhamma-Vinaya so unfortunately these books likely are closed to me, but thank you. I have started to research on the eight classes of beings. One thing which at first was very disconcerting to me is just how alike are my experiences with the yakkhas to the experiences of others. There is a uniform body of esoteric materials related to these beings that can be found across a wide range of ethnic and geographical origins.

Once again, anything unusual, or if anyone wishes to take on the karmic responsibility for sharing hidden materials....

Vipassualty wrote:I am obsessed with them you say? What is wrong with you, Greg? Perhaps you need to take a pause from using the computer. And over here, sadly, where you address with reptilian coldness another newcomer, Grand Poo Bah, after his very first post, after he is opening up and sharing about his emotional and psychological difficulties: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=6331

If I had used the synonms: attraction, enthusiasm, preoccupation, engrosement or propensity, would that make things clearer/better? Remember that these are synonyms so they basically have the same meaning as obsession. Anyway, this is not the right place to discuss my "reptilian coldness"; in the abovementined thread I asked Grand Poo Bah to make his question a little simpler for me since I was too dumb too understand it. If that is reptilian coldness, well...

Nonetheless, Greg, thank you for your strange offer of an amulet photograph.

What is strange about offering you a means for protection? It's not a photo, it's a diagram from a Tibetan book of protective amulets for practitioners to make their own amulets. The book was given to me by my lama for situations like this one.

I get the feeling that people are forming strange opinions about my motives and completely misinterpreting what I state. Maybe they can stop judging me and start looking at their reactions (mind) instead?